Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World
Professor Raymond Arsenault launched his book tour for Freedom Riders last evening at Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem. For the second leg tonight, beginning at 7:30 PM, Arsenault will be downtown at Barnes & Noble (6th Ave. & 8th St.). In addition to hearing Arsenault tell the Freedom Rides story, this might be a perfect opportunity […]
Hello everyone – I am very happy to be here today and to answer your questions, so, let’s get started! At a recent Harvard-sponsored debate between Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz, a major point of contention emerged concerning the nature of the concessions offered by Israel to Arafat. Dershowitz held up a map, claiming the […]
Shlomo Ben-Ami, the former Foreign Minister of Israel and author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace was in our office on Monday and he sat down with OUP Blog to take your questions on his book, which covers the Arab-Israeli conflict from its roots to the present day, including his eyewitness account of the […]
Jones, Quincy (14 Mar. 1933 –), jazz musician, composer, and record, television, and film producer, was born Quincy Delight Jones Jr. on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sarah (maiden name unknown) and Quincy Jones Sr., a carpenter who worked for a black gangster ring that ran the Chicago ghetto. When Quincy […]
by Ed Gaustad This year of 2006 marks the tercentenary of Benjamin Franklin’s birth in Boston (January 17, 1706). And many groups have deemed this occasion as worthy of some notice or even celebration. The city of Philadelphia, for example, is giving major attention to Franklin, notably in its newly erected National Constitution Center, and […]
by H. J. de Blij In the current dilemma arising from the Hamas election victory, it may be useful to recall a French experience. Following the war of independence fought by Algerian Arabs against their French colonial rulers, France acknowledged Algeria’s independence in July 1962, leaving in charge a government of which Paris approved. That […]
Coretta Scott King (27 Apr. 1927–30 January 2006) was born in Heiberger, near Marion, Alabama, the second of three children of Obadiah Scott and Bernice McMurry, who farmed their own land. Although Coretta and her siblings worked in the garden and fields, hoeing and picking cotton, the Scotts were relatively well off. Her father was […]
Colin G. Calloway, author of Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of America reviews the PBS documentary “The War That Made America”: Looking back, it often seems difficult for modern-day Americans to see beyond the Revolution and understand the colonial era as much more than just a prelude to that nation-forming event. Until […]
An excerpt from Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Raymond Arsenault. Arsenault will soon be on tour, roughly following the route of the original Freedom Rides. Click here for a map of the Rides/his tour. On May 14, 1961, the two groups of Freedom Riders left Atlanta an hour apart. The […]
by Harm de Blij Since New Year’s Day, a troubling series of events has caused Europe to wonder just what kind of neighbor Russia plans to be. By virtue of a network of pipelines leading from Russian reserves to European consumers, Europe has become strongly dependent on Russian natural gas, now accounting for nearly one-quarter […]
What are the implications of Ariel Sharon’s stroke for the Israeli government? It is clear that, even if he survives, Sharon is out of the political game. Constitutionally, there is going to be no problem. The transition to a new leader/leadership will be smooth. Israel is a solid democracy. What does the end of Sharon’s […]
Ray Arsenault, the author of Freedom Riders spoke with Terry Gross on Fresh Air today. Arsenault was preceded on the show by the rebroadcast of a segment with James Farmer who was a co-founder of CORE, the Congress on Racial Equality. Arsenault’s segment ends with the CORE chorus singing a delightful version of “Hit the […]
Roberto González Echevarría, the author of The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball wrote in the NYTimes editorial page yesterday on the US refusal to allow the Cuban national team to travel to the US for the World Baseball Classic in March. Echevarría supports the ban and says that protesting it is akin […]
Over most of the first half of the twentieth century, America’s public colleges and universities functioned quite autonomously. They were mostly small, enrolling less than ten percent of the nation’s eighteen to twenty-one year olds, and, for the most part, financially self-sufficient. None of the public institutions were competitive with the best international universities.
The barren setting in this picture of the Purdue University campus in 1900 reflects the modest beginnings of the public institutions. Now, Purdue is an internationally renowned institution, especially for scientific research.
Black students seeking higher education during this period were most likely to find it in a segregated institution. Among the best of the segregated institutions was Tuskegee where these young women learned mattress making early in the twentieth century as part of their “higher education.”
by Andrew Jack Much hot air has been generated in recent days by the New Year’s dispute between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices. The saga has highlighted, to misquote Winston Churchill, commercial interests wrapped up in economics, and justified by politics. On the surface, the squabble looks ugly and one-sided: the great Russian bear […]
by Ben Keene Looking back at the last twelve months, the publisher’s mind reels trying to keep up with changes to borders, placenames, and shifting populations. Inspired by the multitude of year-end round ups, I decided to collect some of the most noteworthy geographical developments in a short—but incomplete—list of my own. Just to emphasize […]